Neighborhood Planning Council 2 - North Central

Monday, Feb 12th, 2024 Meeting Minutes NORTHCENTRAL NEIGHBORHOOD PLANNING COUNCIL #2 Washington Heights – Hub of Hope, 153 N. Wood St. 1. Call to Order & Welcome: 6:05pm. Pastor French welcomes. Introduce self and what you are anticipating. 2. Attendance: NPC 2 Members (E = Excused - notified an officer/member, X = Present, O = Absent): X Mary Bourgeois X Church of Scientology (Jeff Breedlove – Secretary) O Frank Drury O Faith Temple COGIC (Joe Hooper) X Monique French - Chair O Grace Health (Jessica Gerteisen) O Lynn Ward Gray O Samuel Gray X Larz Martin-Bey - Vice Chair O Larry Martin O Patricia Martin X Neighborhoods Inc. of Battle Creek/NIBC (Whitney Wardell) O Bettie Robertson X Springview Tower (Brent Heuss) O Ron Sweet O Prentice Thompson O Karen Todd X Cynthia Wyatt Guests: X Quiton Hay Land Bank X Aprillie Vaughn X Angela Broadus X Shanay Settles X Aric Vaughn City Representation: X Cpl. Brad Gentry X Jim Haadsma X Yolanda Johnson X Darcy Schmidt planning 3. Adoption of the Agenda: Moved by Breedlove and supported by Wyatt to adopt the Feb 12th, 2024 agenda. Motion Carried Unanimously. 7 votes for, 0 against. 4. Approval / Amendment of Minutes: Moved by Larz and supported by Wyatt to approve the Jan 8th, 2024 minutes as presented. Motion Carried Unanimously. 7 votes for, 0 against. 5. Correspondence (sent/received) & Announcements: French: a) Information regarding fire department from last meeting regarding smoke detectors. b) We will have a community conversation 430-6pm community assessment. Sharing information. Here voice of community. Thursday at Washington Heights. Food will be provided. c) Was contacted by Eric from Grace Health. 2693809223. Doing garden and will be building boxes for people if they don’t have one. (Please submit all correspondence/announcements in writing whenever possible) 6. Committee & City Staff Reports: a. Police Department/Fire Department: • Cpl. Gentry gives report. Traffic stops down. No robberies. Nothing up tick out of normal. 4 out of 9 last month total events. Stayed 4 of 9 • Police academy wrapped up. Not sure if there will be another one this year. • Looking to hire for fall academy. Sending hires to KCC and paying to go to college. • Corp Shawn O’bryant will be at next meeting. • Mary B says Police Academy is a collaboration effort. Sherriff and State also. May do two police academies per year. Mailing Address: City Hall, 10 N. Division St., Room 104, Battle Creek, MI 49014 Phone: (269) 966-3315 Fax: (269) 441-0380 Web: www.battlecreekmi.gov  Monday, Feb 12th, 2024 Meeting Minutes NORTHCENTRAL NEIGHBORHOOD PLANNING COUNCIL #2 Washington Heights – Hub of Hope, 153 N. Wood St. • MBOP malicious destruction of property. • Part 1 crime assault with weapon or violent. Part 2 is misdemeanor b. Elected Officials: State Rep Jim Haadsma. Very little since first of year. Two members of Dem caucus successfully ran for mayor. So fell into 54/54 tie in house. Passed one bill in January. Concerned wouldn’t do anything till mid April. Unprecedented to have to members fall off and result in tie. Strange things happening. Tells of a probate bill that didn’t pass. Something crazy happened today. Republic member made a Twitter post of great replacement theory. He doubled down and house speaker announced his staff was going to be reassigned and lose his allotment and his parking spot. Had a few things pass. We are doing committee. We can’t get anything done till April 17th when we have a full house. Everyone has to be present. If you don’t have 56 members present on everything every day. Hard to get things done sometimes. Seems to become more fiction than fiction. County Commissioner Monique French: We had new council to start at the county. Started Feb 1st. nothing else buzzing. Hopefully have more next month. Encourage people to be more involved. c. Neighborhood Services: Y. Johnson shares report. Junk accumulation on the rise. Forever going issue. Since snow melted. Seeing a lot of issues. 707 North ave. Dollar General. Continuing situation. Have been getting high complaints. We are constantly on top of it. Amy is taking care of Wilds. Don’t know if there is a solution to suppress dumping in area. Folks are dumping right in front of me. It’s a challenge. I suggest we continue to speak up about issue until an agency will come up with solution. Land Bank. Advisory committee we have our first meeting March 13, 530-8pm would love if you could join us. d. Beautiful Battle Creek Awards. French: received letter. Will be receiving award but had wrong address Nominations: none. e. Membership: None f. Committees: French: heard from Lynn. No updates. g. Battle Creek Public Schools: None present, no report. 7. Presentation: Darcy Schmidt. Proposed rezoning. Planning commissioner to make recommendation to city commission in late march. All of dates on website. Can call Travis or myself to get update. Need to get as much input as possible. Van Buren, Michigan and Jackson. New level Sports property. That group has been working on massive plan for some time. Look at zoning plan that would make sense. T3 residential and commercial currently. Not really meant to be a city-wide commercial area. T4 is a step up. Allows more uses. T3 did not allow for the creative services they were using. T4 zoning would open up opportunity to a lot of different uses. This is a very large area. Feel it will help. Packet shows uses for T4. What it would allow. South and North of Jackson would allow more development for T4. Travis: T3 does allow for residential. What this does is open up commercial uses. With this rezoning trying to attract more investment for vacant properties. Heuss: affect for housing? Darcy: t3 and t4 housing. T4 requires commercial on first floor and residential on 2nd floor and up 3 more floors. Settles: at are some of things they are proposing? Darcy: One of them is to open up a cross between Hydroponic training and classes to teach people to grow. Inside and outside growing. Travis: talked Mailing Address: City Hall, 10 N. Division St., Room 104, Battle Creek, MI 49014 Phone: (269) 966-3315 Fax: (269) 441-0380 Web: www.battlecreekmi.gov  Monday, Feb 12th, 2024 Meeting Minutes NORTHCENTRAL NEIGHBORHOOD PLANNING COUNCIL #2 Washington Heights – Hub of Hope, 153 N. Wood St. about retail also in that building. Childcare element as well. Wyatt: proposed apartment on Manchester and Washington? Darcy: they are in front of mshda to find out if they can get funding. Hasn’t been denied or approved. These areas, they would have to accumulate troubled properties and have to fund it. Settles: If they are rezoned. If they didn’t do it, does it go back. Darcy: no. Settles: Sunset gardens? Discussion. French: have landowners been notified? Darcy: yes, sent out notices. Made aware of it. Posted in paper. Have not gotten any feedback. Further discussion regarding what is allowed and why. Schmidt: hopeful that widening of river would encourage more development along river. Discussion with landbank and zoning. Discussion of density. Working with NIBC. 8. Old Business: none. 9. New Business: French: what do you need from us? Darcy: input. French: thanks Planning. Does not see anyone opposed to it. 10. Public Comments/Member Comments: Broadus: I work through covid. people were having trouble. I get it. Financially. I had an incident with myself. The perpetrator did not have a license plate. What is going on with cars with no plates. Gentry: being stopped on regular basis. It’s a thing. We’re stopping and they are getting towed. The problem was S.O.S and running behind. But we are way past that. People go buy a car and running around. Stuffs expensive too. Some people can’t afford to get plate. Discussion. 11. Next Meeting: Monday, March 11th, 2024 at 6:00 PM @ Washington Heights UMC. 12. Adjournment: Moved and supported to adjourn. Motion Carried Unanimously. 7 votes for, 0 against. Meeting adjourned at approximately 7:08 PM by Monique French, Chair. Minutes recorded and submitted by: Jeff Breedlove NPC2 Secretary NPC 2 Mission: To improve the quality of life by listening and engaging residents. NPC 2 Vision: A safe, friendly, family-driven neighborhood where everyone wants to live. The City of Battle Creek will provide necessary reasonable auxiliary aids and services, such as signers for the hearing impaired and audiotapes of printed materials being considered in the meeting upon reasonable notice to the City of Battle Creek. Individuals with disabilities requiring auxiliary aids or services should contact the City of Battle Creek by writing or calling the following: City Clerk Office (269) 966-3348/TDD Mailing Address: City Hall, 10 N. Division St., Room 104, Battle Creek, MI 49014 Phone: (269) 966-3315 Fax: (269) 441-0380 Web: www.battlecreekmi.gov  Monday, Feb 12th, 2024 Meeting Minutes NORTHCENTRAL NEIGHBORHOOD PLANNING COUNCIL #2 Washington Heights – Hub of Hope, 153 N. Wood St. Mailing Address: City Hall, 10 N. Division St., Room 104, Battle Creek, MI 49014 Phone: (269) 966-3315 Fax: (269) 441-0380 Web: www.battlecreekmi.gov